UPROAR
New Zealand, 2023, 110 minutes, Colour.
Julian Denison, Minnie Driver, Rhys Darby, James Rolleston, Mark Michinson, Erana James.
Directed by Paul Middleditch, Hamish Bennett.
Most audiences will enjoy Uproar, especially New Zealand audiences, Maori audiences, and all those sympathetic to Maori history in New Zealand. There are some very serious issues but there is a great deal of humour and a lot of cheerfulness.
We are in Dunedin, 1981, the Springboks to tour New Zealand, rugby games, protests, demonstrations, statements by the Prime Minister Muldoon, media coverage… Quite an amount of footage from the times has been incorporated into this story, making the protests feel even more authentic.
However, this is the story of Josh, 17 years old, a student at an elitist boys college, but with Maori background, rather alone in the school, sometimes awkward in manner, and a very heavy build. He is bullied, spend his lunch break reading in the library, dropping crumbs (pretending that it is dandruff) and upbraided by the starchy librarian who demands silence when there is practically no one in the library.
The important thing is that Josh is played by Julian Denison. Audiences first saw him as the young friend in Paper Planes. But most audiences – and there were many – remember him best as the young boy in The Hunt for the Wilderpeople. He has since been in some American films including Deadpool 2, but here he shines, has a wonderful screen presence, and we enjoy every moment that he is on screen.
He feels trapped in his life. His father died several years earlier. He and his older brother, the football champion at the college (and played by James Rolleston who, a decade earlier, made a great impact in Boy) but the victim of an accident, somewhat depressed, recuperating at home. Their mother, British, and feeling not particularly welcomed when she came to New Zealand with her married husband, is played with some force by Minnie Driver. She works as a cleaner at the school, and the principal, haughtily self-important, and the family are dependent on his decisions. He wants the older brother to be the coach of the top football team – and he does. He wants Josh to play in the football team, lending his considerable weight to the scrum.
Josh also delivers papers and is friendly with some of the local Maori girls who are gearing up to join the protests. But, there is a possible saviour for Josh, in the form of Brother Madigan, the enthusiastic but somewhat self-effacing, literature teacher who encourages Josh to join the drama club, to do auditions, to develop his talent. But, his mother will have none of that.
As the film progresses, things become more complex, the Springboks visit, matches at the school, city protests and Josh becoming involved, graffiti on the Maori Hall, and the increasing pressure on Josh, seemingly forever trapped.
Audiences will enjoy the way the final stands is made on the football field, a wonderful sit-in, to the dismay of the college principal. And, the moral of the story is to be oneself, to be honest, and the hope for appreciation.
- An engaging New Zealand film? 1981, memories of New Zealand history, Maori history? Football, the Springbok tour, protests? Racism?
- The Dunedin settings, the city views, the beach on the coast, homes, the streets and deliveries, the Maori Hall, the school, assemblies, corridors, football fields, locker rooms…? Authentic feel? The musical score?
- Josh and telling his story? The screen presence of Julian Denison, engaging? Age, increasing size, self-conscious and not self-conscious? His family history, the sad death of his father, his being young, his mother, British, not easily accepted in Maori families, hard work at the school, Jamie, football career, awards, the accident, depression, convalescence? The family dependent on the school?
- The everyday routines, Josh at home, helping Jamie with the convalescence, exercises? The deliveries, chat with the two women, going to school, ridiculed, the football kicked at him, reading the library, district librarian wanting silence, eating, his exploration of dandruff instead of crumbs on the desk, his friendship with Brother Madigan, the invitation to the drama club, eventually going, Madigan’s praise, “not crap”, telling his mother? His being trapped in his situation, Maori, but not identifying with all aspects? The girls and their influence, required to play football, in the scrum, his practising?
- 1981, South Africa,, apartheid, the Springbok tour, the protests, Maori protests against racism, the glimpses of the prime minister, Muldoon, his statements, the protests, police? The actual rallies, some silent, in the city, the phalanx of the police, the batons, the protesters marching forward, the clown, his being bashed, Joshua filming everything, his glasses, knocked over, crawling to get them, escaping with the camera – and his photo on the front page?
- The principal of the school, the assemblies, the ethos of this kind of public school, the speeches, Joshua and the touch of humour, the captain of the rugby team, the response of the schoolboys? The coach and his speech? Subsidiary to the principal? The principal and the ethos of unity, yet a elitist, the footballers and the racism, the graffiti on the Maori house, Josh identifying the captain and his similar graffiti? The coach, giving them all the alibi, if his sleeping, Jamie telling the police, the police investigation?
- The background of the protests, the local games with the schools, Josh and his presence on the field, Jamie invited to coach, the deals with the principal, Shirley and her continued work, Jamie and his status, Josh playing football?
- Brother Madigan, character, eccentric, teaching literature, the boys in the reading, his faith in Josh, the New Zealand play, Foreskin, his proposal to Josh, declining, agreeing, at the session with the five things in the awkward boy trying to name food? The speech from As You Like It, filmed, the delivery, the goblet or not? The audition, the praise of the examiner? The possibilities for the future, his mother forbidding it, her desperate speech about keeping the family together, her own isolation within the community, dependence on the school? Josh and his doing his audition, filming, Madigan watching it, taking it for Shirley to watch, the transformation?
- The boys, the captain of the team, the graffiti, the burning of the hall? The response of the community, helping in the cleanup? Josh and is leading the singing and the exercises?
- The culmination of the protests, the school and a status, the interventions of the principal, the speeches of the coach, inspiring and banal, onto the field, the previous victory in the celebration, Josh sitting on the field, his mother joining him, Jamie, Madigan, some of the players… And the exasperation of the principal?
- Shirley driving Josh to the sea, member of his father, her speech?
- Josh, trapped in his situation, finding himself, the support he received, his future?
